Sorawit Songsataya has been named as the recipient of the 2020 Molly Morpeth Canaday Trust Major Award of $10,000. Wellington artist Songsataya’s work Morning Dew was a clear winner from the field of 55 other finalists. Morning Dew is described as a piece that contemplates the meteorological forces shaping our lives externally, as also existing within us. Guest Judge Dr Ruth Watson and the competition’s pre-selection judges were equally impressed by Songsataya’s bittersweet vision in resin and suspended plant matter, collectively awarding Morning Dew the highest marks of all 250 initial entrants.
Dr Watson was moved by Morning Dew’s whispers of ecological warning, as it explored themes of nature while hinting at social, and entirely human, problems to be solved. “The dominant medium is resin; nasty and toxic. Any droplets evoked by the title and artist’s statement are long lost, revealing a wistful metaphor for what was once alive; the resin holding nature in suspension, like a tiny oubliette,” she muses. “For better and worse we can see David Bowie’s Goblin King twisting these objects in his tapering fingers, mulling over their contents and making his complex plans.
“While the orbs seem like suspended moments of time, there’s a feisty game of marbles waiting in the associative wings. These small worlds’ delicacy remains both fragile and deceptively robust; they would make it through the labyrinth.”
Nine other outstanding works were also recognised with awards. Like Topsy, a small ceramic work by Madeleine Child received the Akel Family Runner-Up Award of $4,000. The Arts Whakatāne and Robinson Law Highly Commended Awards were won by Telly Tuita’s Three Graces and Anytime (I.G.) by Hannah Valentine, both to the value of $1000. The Craigs Investment Partners Youth Award of $2,500 was awarded to Oliver Cain’s whimsical work Fruit Bowl II which openly presents questions of shame, anonymity and sexuality to a new audience.
Useful Object – remnants from a break-up by Stuart Forsyth, Cross-Culturalism by Lisa Passmore and Pink Coralscape IV by Chauncey Flay each received Merit Award prizes of $500 each.
Ohōpe artist Linda Clews was awarded the Local Artist Merit Award of $500 for her delicate reflection on the fragile bonds stretching between lovers, friends and family that can ultimately form the strongest of supports.
All of the finalist works selected for the Award Exhibition can be viewed at Te Kōputu a te whanga a Toi – Whakatāne Library and Exhibition Centre, until Sunday, 12 April 2020. Visitors are encouraged to vote for the work they think should receive the People’s Choice Merit Award, which will garner the winning artist $500 when the exhibition ends. An exciting programme of free public events also runs alongside the exhibition; all are welcome to attend. For more information on public programmes, visit facebook.com/WhakataneMuseumandArts.
Exhibition partners, Arts Whakatāne and Whakatāne District Council wish to congratulate all winners and finalists, and acknowledge the support of sponsors, volunteers and Te Kōputu a te whanga a Toi staff members who have made the 2020 MMCA 3D possible.
2020 Molly Morpeth Canaday Trust Major Award: Sorawit Songsataya, Wellington. Morning Dew, 2019, Resin, acrylic sheet, dried plants.
Akel Family Runner-Up Award: Madeleine Child, Dunedin. Like Topsy, 2019, Ceramic.
Craigs Investment Partners Youth Award: Oliver Cain, Auckland. Fruit Bowl II, 2019, Ceramic
